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15 Creative Games To Liven Up Any English Class. (Adaptable for use in normal or online classroom teaching)



Making the switch to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a huge adjustment for every teacher who has found themselves in that position. This new reality, just like in-person school, can’t be all work and no play! 

So, for those brave teachers who are required to navigate the world of virtual education on a daily basis, here are 15 fun Zoom games for kids that you can use to take a break from the traditional curriculum and keep kids engaged. 

Dance, Stop and Freeze.

This is a fun activity that gets kids up and moving. It’s perfect for after a class of normal academic activities. Put on some fun music and encourage students to stand up and show off their best dance moves. When the music stops, everyone must stop and freeze. Anyone still dancing is out and sits down to watch their classmates. The last student standing is the winner.

Follow on letters

This is a fun word game that helps reinforce spelling and vocabulary skills. Choose a category—for instance, animals. The first player will name an animal. For example, Elephant. The next player must name an animal that starts with the last letter of elephant, like tiger. The next player must name an animal that begins with the last letter of tiger and so on. 

I Spy with my little eye....

Test your students’ observation skills with a quick round of I Spy. Choose an object from your onscreen background. For instance, “I spy something orange.” Students take turns guessing what the object is. You can also choose something from someone else’s background. For example, “I spy something in Juans background that looks round.”

Person, Place, or Thing

This fun alphabet game gives students practice recognizing and naming nouns. Player One starts with the letter A and must name a person, place, or thing that begins with the letter A. Next Player Two must say a noun that starts with the letter B, and so on. Play continues, giving each student a turn until you reach Z. 

Detective Clueless.

This fun guessing game gives kids a chance to get some of their wiggles out. Choose one student to be “Detective” and ask them to mute their microphone, close their eyes, and count to thirty. Pick another student to be “It”. The player who is “It” begins an action, such as wiggling their legs. All the other students follow suit and wiggle their legs. When the Detective is done counting, they open their eyes and observe the group. When “It” thinks the Detective is looking at someone else, they change the action, such as clapping their hands together. All the other students also change their actions. The Detective gets three guesses to catch the player that is “It”. 

Memory

Prepare a board with random items such as a paintbrush, a pencil, an eraser, etc. Tell your students you are going to give them 30 seconds to memorize the items they see. Students cannot write down a list of the items or take a screenshot; they must memorize by sight only. Move the board out of sight and take one item away. Show the board on screen again and see who can name the missing item fastest. 

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Drawing on Your Head 

This silly activity takes just a couple of minutes and is sure to get your students laughing a lot. Name an object, for example, a car or a tree. Each student must put their whiteboard or a piece of paper resting on top of a book on top of their head and draw the named object. When they think they are done, they take their drawings off their head and show them to the group. 

Mingle

Meeting online has put a damper on spontaneous conversations with and among your students. Spice up the conversation with your students by asking new and interesting questions. Come up with a few of your own or try this selection of questions. Great for building students’ social and emotional skills and as a team-building activity. 

Mystery Person Questionnaire

A lot of teachers start the school year by having their students fill an interest questionnaire. Below is an example. Email the questionnaire to each student and have them fill it out and return it to you (ask them to put a star next to anything they would rather you not share). After you receive all their answers, you can play the game. Share three answers from one student’s questionnaire and give students a chance to guess who you’re talking about. If no one can, give one more clue. Continue until someone guesses or the person reveals themself to the group. 

Chain Story

Start a story with an engaging hook. For instance, “One day, a little girl was walking through a forest. She thought she was alone, but then all of a sudden…” Have students raise their hand if they want to tell the next portion of the story. Choose a student to continue the story (just a line or two) and let them choose the next storyteller in the same way. Continue until everyone who wishes has had one chance to contribute. Feel free to jump back and bring the story to a close at any time.

What's That Sound?

This is a fun activity that tests students’ power of perception. With your hands out of sight from the camera, make a sound with something. For instance, crumple up a piece of paper, strike a spoon on the rim of a glass, or snap your fingers. Let students take turns guessing what they hear.

20 Questions and Guess.

This classic game is perfect for online learning. Choose any topic that would be of interest to your students—an animal, an event, something you’re studying. Each student can ask only one question and take one guess per turn. Don’t let students blurt out the answer—they must wait until it’s their turn. To help you keep track, ask one student to keep track of how many questions have been asked.

Simon Says

Even though the game Simon Says has been around forever, kids still love it! Have everyone stand in front of their computer and begin the game by calling out actions. As students get out, have them sit down until only one student is left standing. As an alternative, you can ask the students to retrieve items from their home and show them to the class, for example, "Simon says, get something red from your kitchen" This is an excellent activity to get the students up and moving around.

The 5 Second Rule

This fun game give students 5 seconds to name 3 things that fit into a particular category, such as “Name 3 fiction books” or “Name 3 insects.” Sounds easy, but five seconds isn’t much time! 

Last Word

This game works best with a small group of students. Before playing, establish who is going first, second, etc. Type the order into the chat box so students can keep track. Choose a subject and a letter of the alphabet. For example, snack foods that begin with the letter P. Set a timer and, in order, have each student list an item. Keep going until the timer goes off. The last person to name something before the buzzer goes off wins the round. This is a link to a pdf collection of subjects for this fun game.

Taboo

This game really challenges a person’s communication skills. For the game, you will use Clue Cards which have the Clue Word on the top of the card and the Taboo Words listed below. The object of the game is for one player to prompt a teammate to guess as many Clue Words as possible in sixty seconds, without saying any of the Taboo Words listed underneath.  This is a pdf with everything that you need to create this fun game for your class.

Well, I hope that you find these games to be helpful for your classes.

Good luck and good teaching.

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